Digital cathedrals / Mark P. Mills.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mills, Mark P., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Data centers--Energy consumption.

Data centers.

Automation--Economic aspects.

Automation.

Information superhighway--Social aspects.

Information superhighway.

Artificial intelligence--Social aspects.

Artificial intelligence.

Technological forecasting.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (30 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Encounter Books, [2019]

Summary:

"We are now witnessing the build-out of society's first foundationally new infrastructure in nearly a century: the Cloud. It is an ecosystem of information-digital hardware, at the heart of which resides massive warehouse-scale datacenters unlike anything ever built. Given the resources committed to them and the reverence afforded to the companies that build and own them, datacenters might be called the digital cathedrals of the twenty-first century. The emerging Cloud is as different from the communications infrastructure that preceded it, as air travel was different from automobiles. And, using energy as a metric for scale-since there are only two kinds of infrastructures, energy-producing and energy-using-today's global Cloud already consumes more energy than all aviation. Yet, as disruptive as the Cloud has already become, we are in fact just at the end of the beginning of what the digital masons are building for the twenty-first century"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Table of Contents

The Information Infrastructure Era

Digital-infrastructure masons caught between profit seeking and virtue shaming

Defining structures of epochs: cathedrals, skyscrapers, and datacenters

The invisible and voracious "information superhighway"

Expanding and accelerating the "information superhighway" with 5G

Are CAFÉ-like fuel efficiency standards on the horizon for AI and robots?

The architecture and appetite of artificial intelligence

Supercomputers and AI supercharge the Cloud

Shock and awe as déjà vu all over again

Robocars are coming, but robots eat too

The relentless pursuit of and confusion over efficiency: Jevons Paradox

The ineluctable energy magic of silicon engines

Metrics for measuring the future: from Medieval barrels to AI's bytes

Data is the new oil

Copyright.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Online version: Mills, Mark P. Digital cathedrals.

ISBN:

9781641771115

1641771119

OCLC:

1122919074